1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dynamoelectric machine or generator to be mounted on a bicycle (hereinafter referred to as "bicycle generator") at an axle portion of a wheel of the bicycle, and particularly to a bicycle generator arranged to be easily and surely mounted on a bicycle by using a ready-made spoke suspending hub flange of the bicycle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been proposed to mount a generator on a bicycle at an axle portion of a wheel thereof as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,105 filed by Shokichi Kumakura and issued on Oct. 7, 1980. The generator is constituted by: a rotor constituted by an annular magnet assembly having a plurality of arcuate permanent magnets incorporated in one of a pair of hub flanges rotatably mounted on the wheel; and a stator constituted by a coil assembly attached to a support fixedly mounted on the axle and disposed within the annular magnet assembly concentrically therewith with a slight gap therebetween. In this generator, however, there is the disadvantage that the one hub flange must be formed in a special shape in order to attach the annular magnet assembly thereto, thus making it impossible to use a ready-made hub flange. Further, because the hub flange on which the generator is mounted becomes longer correspondingly, the spokes connected to the hub flange become shorter correspondingly so that it becomes necessary to support the wheel by means of two sets of spokes different in length from each other.